Communications, Drama and Film

Photo of Professor Cathy Turner

Professor Cathy Turner

Professor of Drama

C.Turner@exeter.ac.uk

2426

01392 722426

Overview

My current research concerns open air performance, the histories of our complex relationships with plants and planting, and the ways in which the garden is a performance space. This work concerns the ways that performance engages, has engaged or might engage with the richness of outdoor culture, and the often painful histories that have formed our environments, including the human and more-than-human participants. A range of projects explore these concerns in different ways, and lead me into thinking about environmental crisis as simultaneously a cultural and political one, which cannot be addressed through technological 'solutions' alone. 

This research takes the form of a monograph on 'Performing Gardens' (under contract); work on the interpretation of National Trust gardens in Cornwall; work to commission, promote and research outdoor and environmentally-engaged performance, and research into cultural histories of tea. I have particular interest in South Indian performance, and in examining the cultural legacies of British colonialism in India (for both countries).

More generally, my work concerns dramaturgies of place and space, including walking art, site-based performance and what performance does within and as part of place.

Projects include:

'Cornish Gardens of the National Trust and Global Plant Collecting' (NT Seed fund, Duterloo) and 'Increasing public access to and understanding of National Trust Cornwall’s colonial heritage of plant collection and cultivation' (AHRC Impact Accelerator, Turner) (2023). These linked projects explore the history of Cornish involvement in plant collecting, in a wider context of land exploitation and colonisation, with a view to sharing these histories through performance, in collaboration with Small Acts, Cornwall.

Taking Tea (exeter.ac.uk) (2022-3), a BA-funded project to examine cultural histories of tea production, in relation to current ecological and cultural concerns, and a green tourism. Research partners are: Jerri Daboo, Drama; Gill Juleff, Archaeology; Nadine Vanniasinkam, Cultural Studies, ICES, Colombo; Tathageta Neogi, Immersive Trails, Kolkata; Priya Tamma,  Ecology, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.

Creative Peninsula (2022). Building on previous work with Evelyn O'Malley (see below), for this AHRC-funded KE project led by Tom Trevor, we have commissioned two performances to engage with outdoor cultures in the SW Peninsula, and will be working with Tom to develop a two-day event exploring collaborative approaches to ‘place-making’ and culture-led regeneration in Devon and Cornwall. Aimed at artists, arts professionals and local authorities, it will consider how culture can help to reinvigorate and re-tell stories of place, working to overcome barriers to social inclusion, wellbeing and environmental sustainability.  

Green Stages (2022): An initiative funded by the ADR fund (internal) to create a green stage space on Streatham Campus, and to work with the network O-P-E-N to host a symposium and several events around the subject of outdoor performance.

O-P-E-N (ongoing): Establishing an Exeter-based network into open air performance and environment.

Outside the Box (2021): Open Air Performance as Pandemic Response. This AHRC Covid-19 rapid response project, led by Evelyn O'Malley (PI) and with Tim Coles (Business School) and Giselle Garcia (Drama), concerned the potential for open air performance to develop appreciation and care for the environment as we attempt to 'build back better' in a safe way. We commissioned work for performance in Exeter in 2021, with publications in Frontiers (2022) and Critical Stages/Scènes critiques (forthcoming).Outdoor Cultures – Open Air Performance, Environment and Wellbeing

The Politics of Performance on the Urban Periphery in South India. (2018-19). AHRC network grant. Project researchers: Anindya Sinha (Animal Behaviour, NIAS, Bengaluru); Sharada Srinivasan (Archaeology, NIAS, Bengaluru); Jerri Daboo (Drama, Exeter); MOD Berlin (Anne Fenk). This network has resulted in an edited book, Turner, Srinivasan, Daboo and Sinha,  Performance at the Urban Periphery: Insights from South India, Routledge: London and Delhi, 2022. We also commissioned four performances in Bengaluru and created an artists book with student artists in Kochi, Kerala. Performing the Periphery – A network between NIAS, Bengaluru, India; University of Exeter, UK and MOD Institute, Berlin

I am always interested in walking performances, and am a core member of artists' collective, Wrights & Sites.

Key publications include Turner et al Performance at the Urban Periphery: Insights from South India (Routledge, 2022); Dramaturgy and Architecture: Theatre, Utopia and The Built Environment (Palgrave, 2015), shortlisted for the TAPRA David Bradby award, 2017; Dramaturgy and Performance, 2nd Edition (Palgrave, 2016), with Synne Behrndt; The Architect-Walker: A Mis-Guide (Triarchy, 2018) with Wrights & Sites - one of a series of published 'Mis-Guides' which provide provocations for disrupted walking.

I welcome PhDs on environmental humanities, walking art, outdoor performance (historical and contemporary), site-specific performance, South Asian plantation histories and performance, performance and landscape, performance and architecture, Indian performance art, dramaturgy and performance writing.

My sometimes less up to date research blog can be found at http://expandeddramaturgies.com/category/sometimeswalking/

Information on Wrights & Sites can be found at http://www.mis-guide.com/

Personal tutees can book a meeting via email. I'm happy to talk and can usually arrange to speak without too much delay.

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Supervision

I welcome PhDs on walking art, site-specific performance, open air performance, South Asian plantation histories and performance, performance and landscape, performance and architecture, Indian performance art, dramaturgy and performance writing.

Here are some of the PhD projects I have supervised recently:

Giselle Garcia: ‘Translation, Adaptation and Walking: The Fate of Shakespearean Performance in Manila's Urban Forms.’  (UoE funding, College of Humanities) (2021)

Elaine Faull: 'Theatre Alibi : An exploration of the impact on well-being and resilience on young audiences', collaborative PhD with Theatre Alibi, Exeter, (UoE funding, College of Humanities) (2020)

Tom Nicholas: 'Representations of Regional English Cities in Contemporary Theatre', College of Humanities funding. (2020)

Aparna Mahiyaria: 'Understanding Politics, Aesthetics and Performance: A Study of the Development of Street Theatre in Delhi, India' (Co-Supervisor, Prof. Shivali Tukdeo, NIAS, Bengaluru, India). (NIAS split site PhD programme, UoE funded). (2019)

Lizzie Philps: 'Parents Performing Walking: how can understandings of walking performance be enhanced through participatory live art works which include children?' (2019)

Evelyn O'Malley: 'Outdoor Shakespeare: Inheriting, reinterpreting and reimagining heritage', (AHRC funding), (2016).

Swati Arora: 'Performance in Public Spaces: Urban Intervention as Participatory Praxis' (NIAS split site PhD programme, UoE funded) (2016).

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2007 | 2006 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |

2024

  • Turner C, O'Malley E. (2024) Between closed space and open air: performance at the threshold, Cambridge Companion to Theatre and Ecology, Cambridge University Press.

2023

  • Persighetti S, Etheridge K, Christoforidou M, Lawrence A. (2023) Plant Navigations. [PDF]

2022

  • O'Malley E, Turner C, Garcia G. (2022) “Mundane” Performance: Theatre Outdoors and Earthly Pleasures, Critical Stages.
  • Turner C, Srinivasan S, Daboo J, Sinha A. (2022) Performance at the Urban Periphery Insights from South India, Routledge.
  • Coles T, Garcia G, O'Malley E, Turner C. (2022) Experiencing Event Management During the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Public Sector Perspective, Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, volume 3, DOI:10.3389/fspor.2021.814146. [PDF]

2021

  • Garcia G, Coles T, Turner C, O'Malley E. (2021) Outside the Box: Open Air Performance as a Pandemic Response - artists questionnaire.
  • Szydlowski M. (2021) Framing Conservation, Colonialism and Care: Captive Endangered Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) in Nepal.
  • Turner C. (2021) Of gardens and graves: Kashmir, poetry, politics, POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES, volume 24, no. 3, pages 427-429, DOI:10.1080/13688790.2018.1544451. [PDF]

2020

  • Faull E. (2020) The Impact of Theatre Performance in a School Setting on Children's Learning.
  • Faull E. (2020) The Impact of Theatre Performance in a School Setting on Children's Learning.
  • Turner C. (2020) Walking with Elephants, Walking Bodies, Triarchy Press, 34-44.
  • Narayanan K, Vijayan S, Pailey A, Pallivathukkal MM, Manohar R, Turner C. (2020) A Mis-Guide to Kochi.
  • Narayanan K, Vijayan S, Pailey A, Pallivathukkal MM, Manohar R, Turner C. (2020) A Mis-Guide to Kochi.

2019

  • Turner C, Vijayan S, Pallivathukkal MM, Pailey A, Manohar R, Narayanan K, BemBem L, Hazra A, Cariappa S, Guha A. (2019) Performing the South Indian Street; a practice research portfolio of curated art works.
  • Turner C. (2019) Drawing Adrift: Bengaluru, Mumbai, St Ives, Performance Research, volume 23, pages 36-44, DOI:10.1080/13528165.2018.1557005. [PDF]

2018

  • Turner C. (2018) Navigation, Performance Research, volume 23, pages 396-399, DOI:10.1080/13528165.2018.1506400. [PDF]
  • Turner C. (2018) Dancing architecture; architect-walking, The Creative Critic: Writing as/about Practice, 158-168, DOI:10.4324/9781315561059.
  • Hodge S, Turner C, Smith P, Persighetti S, Crewes S. (2018) The Architect-Walker: A Mis-Guide, Triarchy Press. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Persighetti S, Smith P, Turner C. (2018) The Architect-Walker: A-Mis-Guide; a co-authored, détourned artists’ guidebook drawing on disrupted walking practices to initiate playful debate, collaboration, intervention and spatial meaning-making. [PDF]

2016

2015

  • Hodge SJ, Turner C, Smith P, Persighetti S. (2015) Walk & Talk: We are all Architect Walkers.
  • Turner C. (2015) Dramaturgy and Architecture: Theatre, Utopia and the Built Environment, Palgrave Macmillan.

2014

  • Turner C, Hodge S. (2014) The International Festival and the City Space: The Dramaturgy of the Local, Dramaturgies in the New Millennium: Relationality, Performativity and Potentiality, Narr Verlag, 111-129.
  • Turner C. (2014) Porous Dramaturgy and the Pedestrian, New Dramaturgy: International Perspectives on Theory and Practice, Bloomsbury, 199-213.

2013

  • Turner C. (2013) Geometry and Atmosphere: Theatre Buildings from Vision to Reality, MODERN DRAMA, volume 56, no. 2, pages 266-268. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Turner C, Smith P, Persighetti S. (2013) Walk On: From Richard Long to Janet Cardiff - 40 years of art walking.
  • Turner C, Hodge S, Smith P, Persighetti S. (2013) Performance and the Stratigraphy of Place: Everything You Need to Build a Town is Here, The Archaeology of the Contemporary World, Oxford University Press, 149-163.

2012

  • Turner C. (2012) Site-Specific Performance, CONTEMPORARY THEATRE REVIEW, volume 22, no. 3, pages 425-426, DOI:10.1080/10486801.2012.697730. [PDF]
  • Hodge SJ, Turner C, Smith P, Persighetti S. (2012) Ambulant Architectures.

2010

  • Turner C. (2010) Nowe dramatopisarstwo a praca nad sztuką w nurcie devising theatre, Notatnik Teatralny, no. 58-59, pages 158-165.
  • Turner C, Heddon D. (2010) 'Walking Women: Interviews with Artists on the Move', Performance Research, volume 15, no. 4, pages 14-22.
  • Turner C. (2010) co-edited journal issue, 'New Dramaturgies',with Synne Behrndt, including individually authored'Mis-Guidance and Spatial Planning: Dramaturgies of Public Space', Contemporary Theatre Review, volume 20, no. 2, pages 150-162.
  • Turner C. (2010) 'Writing for the contemporary theatre: towards a radically inclusive dramaturgy', Studies in Theatre and Performance, volume 30, no. 1, pages 75-90.

2009

  • Turner C. (2009) 'Getting the "now" into the written text (and vice versa?): developing dramaturgies of process', Performance Research, volume 14, no. 1, pages 106-114.
  • Turner C. (2009) 'Something to Glance Off: Writing Space', Journal for Writing in Creative Practice, volume 2, no. 2, pages 217-230.

2007

  • Turner C. (2007) 'Writing Dialogues: Hare in Collaboration', The Cambridge Companion to David Hare, Cambridge University Press, 109-122.
  • Turner C, Behrndt S. (2007) Dramaturgy and Performance, Palgrave Macmillan.

2006

  • Turner C, Hodge S, Persighetti S, Smith P. (2006) A Mis-Guide to Anywhere, Wrights & Sites.
  • Turner C. (2006) 'Brecht's Galileo: Between Contemplation and the Command to Participate', The Cambridge Companion to Bertolt Brecht, Cambridge University Press, 143-159.

2004

2003

  • Turner C, Hodge S, Persighetti S, Smith P. (2003) An Exeter Mis-Guide, Wrights & Sites.

2002

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External impact and engagement

Taking Tea will present an online event on June 24th to discuss histories of tea production and current circumstances. It is a pilot event that trials an alternative approach to tea tourism. Events – Taking Tea (exeter.ac.uk)

'Outside the Box' is a project that engages local authorities, including our own City Council, and artists around the country, pooling their experiences to establish a range of possibilities and potentials for open air performance to 'build back better' in terms of our engagement with the environment. We are also working with Exeter Culture on this. Four major commissions will enhance the city's offer for leisure activities in summer 2021.

The 'Performing the Periphery' project included elements of public engagement through curation and commissioning of locally-based artists in Bengaluru and Kochi. Further impact may arise from aspects of our research into the politics of performance - both its role in shaping narratives of place, and the impacts of urbanisation on long-standing performance practices, often involving animals.

Wrights & Sites have curated work for festivals and a public art work for Weston-super-Mare. Our 'Mis-Guides' have been used in schools and colleges worldwide. Most recently, I have contributed to discussions at RAMM concerning ways of engaging children with the collections.

My project on 'Porous Dramaturgy' has brought academics and practitioner-academics together with practitioners and producers outside the academy in discussions about interactivity and community. This has facilitated workshops held in Northern Ireland by project partners Tinderbox and artist Katarina Pejovic, which culminated in a workshop demonstration and discussion for an invited audience. This workshop, was partly concerned with knowledge exchange and partly brought local concerns to bear in considering and developing the research.



Contribution to discipline

Editor of Palgrave 'New Dramaturgies' series, with Synne Behrndt.

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Teaching

In 2022 I will be teaching a new module on 'Theatre of Space, Form and Colour', with a focus on the Bauhaus. This is a development of previous work within the first year 'Research and Performance' module, in which we explored the work of the Bauhaus in 1920s Germany (2015). This blog entry, coming from that project, gives a good sense of the way in which my research sometimes informs my teaching, and vice versa. It includes the text of a presentation I made on this teaching work to the Prague Quadrennial in June that year, at which I was proud to show videos of the final performance, also found here.

http://expandeddramaturgies.com/category/teaching/bauhaus-research-and-performance-2015/

Other modules I have led or taught on at Exeter include: Theatrical Interpretation: Practitioners; Playwriting; Dramaturgy; Performance and Interpretation; Practical Essay; Dissertation; Theatre and Ecology. I have also convened MA Modules in Performance Writing and Playwriting.

Modules taught

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Biography

Cathy Turner is Professor of Drama at the University of Exeter. Her book, Dramaturgy and Architecture: Theatre, Utopia and the Built Environment, was published by Palgrave in 2015. She is joint author, with Synne Behrndt, of Dramaturgy and Performance (Palgrave Macmillan 2008), and joint editor, with Behrndt, of Palgrave's 'New Dramaturgies' book series. She is a core member of Wrights & Sites, a group of artists whose work is concerned with our relationship with space and place. Their most recent work is The Architect-Walker: A Mis-Guide (2018). In 2010, the company completed a major public art commission for Weston-super-Mare, curated by Situations and Field Arts and funded by CABE. She has published on dramaturgy, writing for performance, space and place and led grants investigating performance and urbanisation in South India, and dramaturgies that are 'porous', inviting participation.

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